Salsa

No, this is not the sexy salsa dance that you might think it is. This is pretty sexy itself, considering how easy it is to make it, and how much of an impression it can make on others having it with their roast chicken, steak, spaghetti or just about anything that needs the extra refreshing sweet and sour taste. There're lotsa versions to this, but this may be my very personal favorite, considering its impact on taste, yet so simple and cheap. This is for 6 pax.

Ingredients:
2 red apples, chopped
1 green apple, chopped
1 large tomato, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
a handful of chopped coriander (daun ketumbar)
1 tsp ground cumin (jintan putih)
a pinch of salt

Method:
Mix all ingredients. Refrigerate till needed.

Fusion Baked Maggi

I created this out of things that I have at home. Just felt like cooking today, after a few series of Nigella Feasts in the morning, and I was in a lazy Saturday mood, so going out and shopping for groceries is certainly out of the question. I had recently updated my Italian spices that I buy at Bagus Store for Bakers, and had a tingling taste for Italian today. So I present, my very own Fusion Baked Maggi. Yummy and very easy to make.

Ingredients:
3 packets Maggi
3 chicken breasts, cut into chunks
1 packet of hot dogs, cut into chunks
2 tomatoes, cut into chunks
2 large onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, smashed and chopped
4 eggs
1/2 cup flour
3 cups milk
3 tbsp butter
1/2 cup olive oil
thyme
oregano
pepper
3 cheddar cheese slices for topping, cut into triagles

Method:
1. Marinate chicken and sausages with pepper, oregano and thyme. Heat olive oil, and saute onions and half of garlic till golden. Add in the marinated chicken and sausages, and stir till chicken is slightly golden but still juicy.
2. Add in tomatoes, more pepper, thyme, oregano and salt. Stir till juice from tomatoes thickens. Place in a baking dish, and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, soak Maggi with hot water, till almost soft. Drain water and leave aside in a bowl.
4. Melt butter in a pan, and fry the remaining garlic till golden brown. Pour over Maggi, and toss with a dash of oregano and salt. Set aside.
5. In a bowl, beat the eggs, salt, milk and flour together. Pour half of this custard batter onto the chicken mixture in the baking dish. Make sure custard is distributed evenly between the chicken mixture. Top all this with the tossed Maggi, and pour in the remaining custard. Press the Maggi slighly, to ensure that all are covered with the custard.
6. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes in a 180 o Celcius oven. In the final 10 minutes, arrange cheese on top, and bake further. Let it set for 10 minutes before serving.

Tips:
1. Make sure Maggi is not over-soaked, coz it will get too soggy when covered with custard.
2. This is a very rich tasting dish, so for a wholesome meal, have it with salad and a simple olive oil and lemon dressing.

Tomato Sandwich

This recipe reminds me of a type of sandwich that Norleen once taught me in college, and I love them still. Her mom used to make them for her during her school years, and I think its a good practise for all moms to do the same. Very healthy, and the combination of the ingredients somehow compliments the sweet and soury tomato taste. Yummy! I know some would be whining...what the hell...but trust me, this is pretty awesome.

Ingredients:
Fresh tomatoes (sliced thinly)
Bread
a pinch of salt
Butter
a dash of black pepper

Method:Spread butter onto bread. Arrange tomatoes onto butter bread, add salt and pepper.

Olyn's Salad

Sorta Italian and French mixed dressing.

Salad Ingredients:
Lettuce assortments
Cherry Tomatoes (wedged)
Onions (sliced)
Hard-boiled Eggs (sliced or wedged- whichever of preference)
Olives (sliced)
Dressing
Croutons

Dressing Ingredients:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup Mayonnaise
1 lime
5 olives (chopped)
1 bulb garlic (crushed)
a dash of Italian Mixed herbs
salt and black pepper to taste

Dressing Method:
1. Whisk all ingredients together, till you get a smooth blend of ingredients. Use immediately.

Crouton Method:
Lightly spread any bread with olive oil and cut into small cubes. Place onto baking tray, and toast in a 150 deg Celcius oven till browned and crispy. Make sure you toss it around once in awhile during toasting.

Salad Method:
1. Mix all vegetables and olives with dressing. Top the salad with eggs and Croutons. Serve cold.

Tips: If you're too lazy to whisk, just put in all the dressing ingrdients in a jar. Tighten lid, and shake away, till well blended.

Lasagne

This recipe is actually a mix of my own and Nigella's. Its easy to make, and tastes extremely gorgeous. And I'm not at all exagerating. I don't think I'll ever buy Lasagne again after this, when I know I have the perfect recipe for it, and can make much much more at a fraction of the price and for the family to enjoy. This recipe is for 6-8 persons (4"x4")

Lasagne Ingredients:
300g Lasagne sheets
Meat Sauce
Bechamel Sauce
2 cups Parmesan cheese (shredded)
2 cups Mozarella cheese (shredded)

Meat Sauce Ingredients:
800 g minced beef
2 onions (chopped)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup water
1 large can tomato puree
2 large cans whole tomatoes
2 generous dashes of Italian Mix herbs
10 olives, sliced (optional)
salt and black pepper to taste

Meat Sauce Method:
1. Heat oil, and saute onions till fragrant. Add in beef and cook till browned.
2. Add all other ingredients, and simmer on medium heat till thickened or not too liquidish.
3. Cool down to further thicken.

Bechamel Sauce Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
4 cups milk
1 studded onion (onion pierced with 3-4 cloves)
1 basil leaves
dash of thyme
salt and white pepper to taste

Bechamel Sauce Method:
1. Melt butter, and when foam forms, add the flour. Stir thoroughly for about 3 minutes. Set aside for 10 minutes to cool.
2. In a separate boiler, scald the milk (heat up till almost boiled).
3. Bring back butter and flour mix to heat, add milk quickly, and stir quickly to avoid lumping. Add the rest of ingredients, stir and cook further till thick. Set aside to cool.

Lasagne Method:
1. Cook Lasagne sheets according to box instructions, drain and sit in cold water.
2. Assemble the Lasagne:
a. Meat Sauce
b. Lasagne sheet
c. Meat Sauce
d. Parmesan
e. Bechamel Sauce
f. Mozarella
3. And back to step (a) till the brim of the casserole dish. For the last layer, however, swap the Mozarella and Parmesan, for the natural golden finish after baking.
4. Bake at 200 deg Celcius for 40 minutes. After baking, let it stand for 20 minutes to set. Fantastic!

Tips:
1. Its very important to sit the cooked Lasagne sheets in cold water to ensure it doesn't stick and is easier to deal with.
2. I also add a bit of oil into the boiling water when cooking the Lasagne sheets.
3. I had this with a simple tossed salad with a dressing I made up on my own. See next recipe.

Lemon Pound Cake

Tried and tested recipe from Nigella's. For the sweet toothed, coz its really sweet and rich in flavour. I had this with the girls during the Baby Shower, and even brought it to the office coz it turned out to be quite huge. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
For Cake:
335 gm (2 1/4 cup) flour
1 tsp baking powder
180 gm butter
495 gm caster sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
Juice of 1 lemon
Finely grated rind of 2 lemons
1/2 cup yogurt or milk

For Lemon Syrup:
2 extra lemons, juice and rind
1/2 cup sugar

Method:
Preheat oven 160C
1. Sift flour, baking powder into a bowl. Repeat 3-5 times.
2. Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar till light & fluffy
3. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition
4. Add vanilla and lemon rind
5. Stir in yogurt & lemon juice, alternating w. flour mix till just combined
6. Bake for 40 minutes
7. Stand in cake tins for 10 minutes, drizzle with 1/2 of lemon syrup, before turning out on wire rack to cool completely.
8. Brush remaining syrup.

Lemon Syrup
1. Combine syrup ingredients and put in a pan over low heat
2. Simmer till sugar is dissolved
3. Set aside to cool.

Tips:
1. I think that the cake alone is sweet, so I skipped the Lemon Syrup. But its totally up to you though. Instead of the syrup, I'd recommend cheese frosting.

Tofu with Oyster Sauce

Ingredients:
1 packet soft tofu
4 cloves garlic - chopped
2 tbsp cooking oil
3 tbsp oyster sauce
a bit of spring onion for garnishing (daun bawang)



Method:
1. Remove tofu from packet, and place in a deep microvaveable dish with cover. Heat up oil in wok, and cook the garlic till golden brown. Immediately pour over tofu, along with oil.
2. Pour the oyster sauce over, cover the dish and heat in microwave on High for 3 minutes.
3. Just before serving, sprinkle over with spring onion.

Tips:
1. Tofu can be bought at most supermarkets.
2. Tofu may be cut up into smaller squares like I did, to ensure flavour is distributed evenly.
3. Juice from tofu will ooze out when the garlic oil is poured over. This is normal cooking reaction of the tofu.

Garlic Bread

Well, just yesterday, a friend said that he didn't like the taste, or rather the hardness of French Loaf or Baguette. I used to dislike it as well, until an aunt taught me the secret in making it really soft in the inside, and really really crispy on the outside.

Ingredients:

1 Baguette100g butter (softened)

3 cloves garlic (chopped or pounded)

1 sprig of parsley (chopped)

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (optional)

1/4 tsp salt

Method:

Mix the butter, garlic, parsley and salt. Cut the Baguette into 2 (to accomodate an oven). Cut the Baguette across, but not all the way, just to have a wide opening across the whole length (like a sandwich). Spread the butter mixture onto the inside of the bread. Sprinkle the cheese on top of the butter. Run the Baguette (closed) across running tap water (very quickyly, so that only the crust is a bit dampened) and bake for 8 minutes in a 180 deg C oven. Eat it while its hot!

Tip:
1. Leftover Garlic Bread can be recycled into yummy bread crumb. Garlic bread would become crispy inside out after a few hours, so just pop into the blender, till you get fine crumbs. Just coat chicken pieces with egg (add salt and pepper to egg) and coat with the bread crumb. Deep fry till cooked. For a healthier version, just pop into the oven till cooked.
2. For sandwiches, just cut across, spread pure butter, run through tap water, and bake. Cut the crispy Baguette into required length.

Sandwiches

General Ingredients:
Gardenia Bread
Butterhead Lettuce (for a mild taste and long-lasting sandwich)
or Iceberg Lettuce (for a crunchy fresh taste)
Pure Butter

Tuna Mayo Filling:
1 can Tuna in Brine
3 tbsp Mayonnaise (I use Kraft's)
1/2 tsp sugar
1/3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Egg Mayo Filling:
2 eggs (boiled and mashed with fork till fine)
2 tbsp Mayonnaise
1/2 tsp sugar
1/3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Method for Tuna and Egg Mayo:
Mix all ingredients, cover tight and refrigerate overnight.

Fried Sardine Filling:
1 small can of sardine (mashed with fork till fine with 3/4 of its gravy)
1/2 big onion (peeled and chopped)
3 cloves garlic (peeled and chopped)
1 tbsp lime juice
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 tbsp cooking oil

Method for Fried Sardine:
Heat oil, and saute onion and garlic till golden. In a bowl, mix the mashed sardine, lime juice, salt and pepper. Add this mixture to the sauteed ingredients and fry further, till color of sardine gravy turns orangey from red. Let cool and its ready to use.

Spicy Chicken Mayo Filling:
1/4 chicken
3 cloves garlic (unpeeled and smashed)
1L water
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp Mayonnaise
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
some Thai chilli sauce

Method for Spicy Chicken Mayo:
Boil chicken till cooked with water, garlic and 1 tsp salt. Remove stock (water and garlic). Let cool, debone and chop chicken meat. Add the rest of the ingredients, except for the chilli sauce. May be used immediately. Top up with chilli sauce when assembling the sandwich.

Method for Sandwich:I'm sure you know how to assemble a sandwich!

Tips:
1. I like to add chopped 1 small tomato or 1/2 onion to my Tuna Mayo for my own indulgence. Try this!
2. Use freshly ground black pepper. Its makes a whole lot of difference.
3. For an even more complete sandwich, add cheese, cucumber and tomato slices.4. For parties, I like to cut the sandwich into small triagles or squares, and deco with parsley. You can even be more creative, by cutting out with large cookie cutters.

Begedil (Potato and Meat Patties)

It depends on how many you need, but this recipe makes about 20 pieces of 2" begedil. Happy indulging!

Ingredients:
A (to mix)
1/2 kg potatoes
200g minced beef
2 large onions (chopped)
a handful of chopped celery leaves (daun sup)
1 egg
1 tablespoon flour
salt and pepper to taste

B (for coating)
2 eggs (beaten and salt added to taste)
1 bowl of flour

Method:
1. Boil potatoes until very tender to mash. Peel and mash in a large bowl.
2. Mix well with all the other A ingredients. Form mixture into 2" patties and coat with flour.
3. Heat a deep frying wok with cooking oil.
4. Coat patties with eggs and fry on slow fire till lightly browned.

Tips:
1. Eat it while it's hot! I was fasting the other day when I made this, so just reheat in the microwave for that extra umph!

Yummy with: Steaming hot rice. Also can be taken with bread and mayo (like my sis did), just like a burger.

Daging Masak Kunyit

This is my personal favorite, coz its delicious and easy to make. Very typical Malay.

Ramuan - ramuannya:
1/2 kilo daging lembu batang pinang (dihiris kecil)
3 ulas bawang putih (ditumbuk halus)
sedikit halia tua sebesar ibu jari (ditumbuk halus)
2 sudu kecil serbuk kunyit
sedikit garam dan ajinomoto
1 ulas bawang besar (hiris bulat)
3 sudu besar minyak masak

Cara memasaknya:
Panaskan minyak masak dalam kuali. Tumiskan bawang putih dan halia sehingga kekuningan. Masukkan daging, serbuk kunyit, garam, dan ajinomoto, and kacau sehingga daging empuk. Masukkan bawang besar, dan kacau sehingga bawang layu.

Tips:
1. Sekiranya sukakan sedikit warna dalam masakan, bolehlah tambahkan kacang panjang yang dipotong panjang 2" dan hirisan cili merah (dibuang biji), bersama dengan bawang besar tadi.
2. Sekiranya menggunakan daging biasa, bukan batang pinang (murah sikit), rebuskan daging selama 1 jam sebelum masak.

Sedap dimakan bersama: nasi yang panas, sambal belacan dan timun.

English Scones

Ingredients:

2 cups self raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoon castor sugar

45g butter

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

Method:

1. Sift flour and baking powder together into a bowl. Add sugar, and using fingertips, rub in butter until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Make a well in the center.

2. Whisk together milk and egg and pour into the well, and mix to a soft dough. Turn dough onto floured surface and knead lightly.

3. Press dough out to 2cm thick, and using a 5cm diameter cutter, cut out the scones. DO NOT TWIST THE CUTTER WHILE CUTTING. This will ensure the scone will rise as shown in illustration, as it should be.

4. Grease and lightly flour baking tray. Arrange scones close together and brush top with a little milk.

5. Bake for 12-15 minutes at 220oC, until golden.

Tips:

1. If cutter is not available, just use a cup. Lightly flour the cup before cutting.

2. Eat it while its HOT!

Yummy With: Butter, Cream and Strawberry Jam

my dream

i've always wanted to open up a deli with dear sisters (of whom share the passion of cooking, but of different style), but that idea has to hold, to make way for a bigger and better deli we could call our own. it has to be perfect, it has to be grand, but definitely wouldn't empty your pockets like how some places do. it has to be cozy, where everyone that comes would come again for that oh-so-yummy pie, or to-die-for world's best chocolate mousse or simply for the ambience, while blogging away with the free WIFI. my dream...